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2010 Summer Interview: Toney Douglas

I sat down with Toney Douglas for 3 minutes and 28 seconds, and he was kind enough to answer some questions.

Mike Kurylo:Last year we talked about defense, and you said “In college there is a lot of help defense, but in the NBA [things are] more spaced out. One mistake and [you’ve given up a] bucket. I feel like in college you can just go fast [all the time], but in the NBA you have to pick & choose when to go fast.”. How do you feel about defense now that you’re going into your second season?

Toney Douglas: I learned a lot being in the NBA playing defense. A lot of the stuff I did in college I won’t be able to do. Well, I can do some of it because I’m athletic. It’s all about picking & choosing where you want to make steals & where you want to gamble. When to get in the paint & get out. I’m going to be a way better defensive player this year, especially off the ball. On the ball I’m fine, off the ball I’m going to be way better.

Mike Kurylo: Now that the team has radically changed this year, who are you looking forward to playing with?

Toney Douglas: Everybody. We have a great team. A talented team. Everybody that has a uniform on can play. That’s a great feeling. In training camp tomorrow we’re going to start feeling out everyone else’s games. What people can do and what they can’t do. We have a lot of options and I’m looking forward to it tomorrow.

Mike Kurylo: Who do you miss playing with from last year?

Toney Douglas: Who I played with a lot was David Lee. He is a smart player, has a basketball IQ like a point guard. He can dribble, shoot, and he knows the game. He’s a smart player. At the same time it’s a business. I’m pretty sure he’s going to do well where he’s at, and at the same time we had to make changes for the benefit of our team. We gotta move on.

Mike Kurylo: You shot poorly in the summer league last year. Then you had a good shooting season, very good actually. Then you shot poorly again in summer league. What’s the difference about the summer league?

(laughter by both)

Toney Douglas: I don’t know. I’m not worried about it. When it’s time to suit up I’m ready to go. I know I’m going to knock my shots down. That’s me standing in the gym being confident…

Mike Kurylo: … Are you thinking too much? Trying to work on something? Or like you said last year it was just a bad week?

(laughter by both)

Toney Douglas: I can’t even tell you. I just know when I’m on MSG and I’m in the Garden I’m going to be ready.

Mike Kurylo: I asked Bill Walker the same thing and I mentioned it to him. Is it the water? The altitude?

25 comments on “2010 Summer Interview: Toney Douglas”

nice job. How many people are interviewing guys like Walker and Douglas? I barely if ever, see quotes from them in the paper. So they must be pleased that someone not only talks to them but actually took the time to be knowledgeable (I don’t mean that to be condescendign to the players).

I guess two big questions for Douglas this year is: Will D’Antoni give him any minutes?

I recall D’Antoni saying that he’d play 10-11 this year, but Amar’e & Felton have to get their minutes. That doesn’t bode well for Douglas unless Coach often goes with 3 guard alignments. Felton is pretty sturdy – having missed only 11 games in his career (2.2 per year) – so that isn’t much of a gateway. Throw in Rautins and Mason (both who said they can play point) and maybe Randolph/Gallo as point forward and things don’t look good for Toney.

@2
I can’t see Mason or especially Rautins playing the point ahead of Douglas. Unless TD falls on his face, I think at a minimum he’ll get 12-15 minutes backing up Felton. I’d like to see him play minutes at the 2, in a smaller lineup, but that is a lot murkier with all the options at SG.

One thing that’s great about Toney is that he can play very well in spot minute situations. It’s not that easy to sit and then come in and play at a fairly high level. Unfortunately, his passing/court-vision just isn’t there yet. In a way, he does everything that Mason does – but Mason can D up 2’s while Toney defends 1’s.
I didn’t even consider Rautins, but if he plays well, Toney could actually become expendable. It seems like Felton and Amare (and to a lesser extent Gallo) are the only ones guaranteed their spots. A lot of competition out there. It’s nice to have a bunch of guys that can play and who seem to work hard – what a change! I mean, it’s a logjam even without Azu who should compete for minutes when he gets back.

MDA specifically said in an interview (you can find it on The Knicks Blog) that he will play TD along side Felton at time and that is something he is looking at and already running in practice. I think he seems pretty high on Tony.

I would suspect that we will def see small fast lineups like Felton, TD, Mason, Gallo, Amare for example when we need scoring. Lot of shooting there.

Yeah, he seems pretty amenable to them playing together but says he doesn’t quite know how often. IMHO, I would want at least one of Felton and TD on the floor at all times which would guarantee Toney 12-15 mpg.

Great interview, Mike. Liked what he said about defense, and also about David Lee.

Mike Kurylo: I guess two big questions for Douglas this year is: Will D’Antoni give him any minutes?

I think ultimately he’s too good for D’Antoni not to play (20-25 mpg or something at least). He’s going to outshoot Felton by a wide margin, he’s going to out-pass all the wings, he’s going to defend as well as anybody, and he’s a solid rebounder for a 6-1 player. We’ll see what happens and there’s a good amount of competition, but over time I’m confident Toney Douglas will solidify a rotation spot.

Alan Hahn is reporting that Curry suffered a strained right hamstring that will take 4-6 weeks to recover from. Curry will not finish training camp for the third straight year and will not accompany the team to Europe for their exhibition matches.

I heard another interview w/ MDA. It’s pretty clear that he is going to try to use Randolph the way he used Jeffries; “he’ll guard Rondo, he’ll guard Dwight Howard… he’s one of a kind… we’re going to push him… he’ll play alongside Amar’e.”

The differences being that A) Randolph is good B) the lineup is a lot more crowded than the previous two years C) D’Antoni is more patient with veteran mistakes a la Duhon and JJ than he is w/ those of a 21 year-old.

Haha. Toney’s ballhandling may not have improved much since last season, but his interview answers sure have. Last year when you asked him who he was most excited to play with he said: “Jared Jeffries”.

Pretty funny stuff. But it brings up an important point: I think sometimes we forget that the difference between winning and losing is, like, a four-point difference in TS%. That means that out of the eighty-some shots that a team takes (or the thirty-some shots Carmelo takes), the margin between a conference contender and a lottery cellar-dweller is a few of those shots bouncing in (in addition to, y’know, offensive rebounding, turnovers, steals, etc.). So even though we know (and I’m confident in the associated heuristics) that Jared Jeffries is simply an absymal scorer, we might overlook the fact that it’s impossible to internally catalog a narrow difference as that of 50 and 60 TS% shooters. My point is that I’d be pretty excited to play with a guy who has the athleticism for guarding any position on the floor.

That’s good to know about Randolph. He did say he would guard 1-4, correct? So no playing center, at least for now.
I guess in a dream world, Mosgov blows everyone away and ends up starting with Felton, Chandler, Gallo, and Amare. Then Randolph comes in at the 4 and Amare moves to the 5. Mosgov sits.
The only thing is that I don’t see how Gallo can get any minutes at the 4 this way, but I’m fine with him just playing the 3.

I’m sure everybody is sick of the Melo talk, but whatever. Saw this yesterday. According to ESPN:

“The New York Knicks, who are Anthony’s team of choice, have continued to pursue Anthony, but Denver has generally been cold to conversations with the Knicks. Sources told Broussard that the Nuggets are not only lukewarm on the players available from the Knicks but also believe that New York might have done some back-channel recruiting of Anthony over the summer.”

I call BALONEY. Seriously, the Nugs are going to not make a trade with a team because that team *hurt their feelings*? Hahaha. Funny stuff.

I get it: the Knicks don’t want to give up AR + Gallo, the Nugs want at least that, ain’t no deal happening anytime soon.

Tastycakes – I like the position the Knicks are in with regard to Melo right now. We just saw a deal with the Nets disintegrate that probably is the best one talent-wise the Nuggets will see, and the reason was likely because Melo wouldn’t sign an extension with NJ. So the Knicks can sit back and wait for Denver to come to them or best case, wait until 2011-2012, I don’t think there should be any urgency on the Knicks part to get a deal done, particularly if it involves both AR and Gallo. And the writers can calm down now, after making the idiotic case that Melo to the Nets would be a complete and utter disaster for the Knick franchise.

@22 & 23 – I have to say if Walsh indeed has turned down Randolph & Gallo for ‘Melo I’m impressed w/ Donnie’s restraint. It seems like many NBA GMs would mortgage two prospects of their caliber to lock up a guy who averaged 28 ppg. With a starting lineup of Felton, Azubuike, Carmelo, Amar’e and Turiaf w/ Chandler, Douglas, Mosgov, and Chandler coming off the bench, he wouldn’t receive any blowback (outside of the readers of this website). ESPN might call him a genius.

Granted, if ‘Melo only wants to play for the Knicks and everyone in the league knows it, the obvious move is to just wait it out until 7/1/2011.

Nice interview Mike. I’d actually consider starting Douglas at the two- TD’s playmaking, while subpar for a point, would really help what looks to be a pretty bad passing team (Gallo, Stat, Chandler, Azu, Randolph, and Walker all put up pretty unimpressive passing numbers). Add to that the fact that Chandler, Walker, and Azu (who played as much 3 as 2 at GS and won’t be helped by the knee injury) have been more effective guarding the three and Toney looks like a pretty viable option. On the down side, all three of the other guys are probably better finishers when running the wing on the break (something I’m sure D’Antoni wants to do a lot more of). Worse, if D’Antoni wants to run the same defense where every screen is switched on the perimeter, Toney would wind up having to guard plenty of 3’s as well which would be a real struggle. That said, I think a 1,2,3 of Felton, Douglas, and Gallo (or Randolph) would be the most effective starting three in terms of keeping the ball in front of them that we’ve seen in almost a decade. And I think he’d wind up being as efficient a scorer as any other option we have. I guess the bottom line is that I’d rather see Douglas logging 30+ minutes a night than Chandler, Azu, Walker, or Mason so if that means playing him heavy minutes at the 2 then so be it.